Selling A Home In Tampa? Make It Accessible!

August 14th, 2008 categories: Tampa Real Estate, Tips for Sellers

Never fails to amaze me at how inaccessible some sellers make their homes. FACT: This is a strong buyers market! The seller who fails to accommodate buyers wanting to see their home is at a serious disadvantage. Twice in the last week I’ve had problems showing homes in which I was setting up appointments days in advance, and both of these properties are listed as pre-foreclosure short sales!

Made an appointment to show one and received confirmations from the listing brokerage by e-mail and by voicemail. Good to go, right? No, not really. My clients and I show up on time and only a barking, snarling dog is their to greet us. Long story short—no one ever shows up to provide access. Called to make an appointment to see another a few days ago and this morning I finally get the message that the home will not be available to show because the seller is preparing to go on vacation (this is a short sale listing BTW). She’ll be gone by Monday (today is Thursday) and then it will be OK to show. You’ve got to be kidding me, right?

Actually for anyone in this business this is no big surprise, and is rather normal. But nonetheless these happenings always make me question a seller’s motivation to sell. And more importantly it makes the buyers question the same. Will they really want to reschedule a look at that one? Can’t blame them if they don’t.

So what a home seller can learn from this is the importance of making a home for sale easily accessible. You better be ready to accommodate any prospective buyers on their time, not yours.  A seller’s market it is not.

Also see:

Making Tampa Homes For Sale Accessible:

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 14th, 2008 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Tampa Real Estate, Tips for Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Selling A Home In Tampa? Make It Accessible!”

1. Rich [August 27th, 2008]

   I can see this being a problem but as a seller I have come across some very lazy real estate agents that do show my townhouse. I have a dog so an appointment is required but have had multiple no shows and no Realtor calling me to tell me they will not be coming by. This is very lazy to me since I have to go out of my way to make accommodations for my dog during the work week. I have also run into the showing Realtor and client showing up late. If you say you are coming by between certain hours then come by during those hours, not an hour after they said they would be there.
   I have also run into Realtors not leaving there business cards after they show and not returning any calls to my Realtor with any feedback. Very unprofessional in my opinion but with the Market flooded with lazy Realtors (not all) I guess it should be expected. I am not sure why half of these people even get paid, all they do is list a house on mls and then sit back and do nothing.

   *** This does not apply Gurvich group, but I am sure they would agree that the industry has way too many Realtors that are lazy and useless.

2. Lenny Gurvich [August 27th, 2008]

   You’re right Rich. All professions certainly have individuals on both ends of the spectrum of professionalism, and many in between. I also think the barriers to entry in this industry are way too lacking. My advice? Interview, get references of past clients, etc. Of course this does nothing with regard to the agents showing your home. The most you can do is ask your agent/showing service to stress the time frame, etc. Thanks for the input!

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